How To Manage Bakery Inventory For Maximum Revenue

The bakery products are highly demanding and contain fewer expiration dates. As a result, you have to produce your baked goods regularly. Managing a bakery is a very challenging operation for the bakery business owners. So, being careful about the bakery inventory management system would be best. It would be best to have an effective inventory management software to ensure a smooth operation. In this article, we will provide all the information on how to manage bakery inventory properly. 

What Is Bakery Inventory Management System?

The bakery inventory management system executes all inventory operations, such as checking, ordering, receiving, and storing all the ingredients appropriately. It tracks all the operations in a bakery to maximize production.

Inventory management plays a game-changer role in the food business. It helps to maintain the quality of your baked goods while you produce them at a high volume. Always remember that good ingredients and excellent recipes are not enough to run a successful bakery operation. It would help to have proper management and unique strategies to operate a good bakery business. 

Moreover, you need to keep tracking what supplies are coming and how much stock is available at the bakery storehouse. Only then can you boost your production and increase your sales. An ideal small business inventory management system can help you do this task very smoothly. 

As we live in the digital era, we must update our business to match the current world. As a result, we can use different types of software to make our tasks easy. An inventory management system is one such system that is highly effective in the food business sectors.

How To Manage Bakery Inventory: Effective Ways

As we know, the bakery business involves dealing with short-lived goods and fresh ingredients. Therefore, it is essential to track your bakery stock regularly. A bustling inventory management system can help you keep your bakery inventory up to date. 

Here, we have provided all the information on how to manage bakery inventory.

1. Understand Your Demand

If you are planning to manage your bakery inventory system, the first task is to understand the customer's actual demand. Market research will help you understand the current market statistics for bakery goods. 

In the market, you will find different types of scenarios, such as best-selling goods, slow-moving goods, seasonal and occasional products, popular and unpopular products, etc. 

Moreover, you can collect customers' feedback and previous sales data to understand and analyze the demand for bakery goods. This will help you calculate your bakery's total production. You can also make a sales report daily to overview your bakery's performance. This is how you can start managing your bakery inventory. 

2. Analyze and Track Your Inventory 

The most essential part of bakery inventory management is analyzing and tracking ingredients and supplies. A strong bakery inventory management system will help you identify the most sold items. 

On the other hand, you can learn about those items that remain untouched in the bakery storage and are wasting your bakery space. When you can identify your ingredients properly, you can place a better order for your bakery business next time. This will reduce your bakery operation costs. Previously, bakery business owners used manual counts to manage their inventory.

But now, in the era of advanced technology, most bakeries use specialized POS software to manage their bakery inventory. Using the POS system is very accurate and time-consuming. When you record your inventory data, you should be very careful about accuracy. 

When you record your data properly, you will get a clear graph of your bakery inventory level. In your bakery inventory system, you have to include all your ingredients and sell baked products, such as baking powder, flour, milk, sugar, yeast, butter, sugar, etc. Moreover, you should also include bags, boxes, labels, etc. as packaging material. When you keep tracking those items, you can avoid overstock and spoilage.

3. Reduce Waste

One of the most important reasons for using an inventory management system in a bakery is to reduce food waste. Food waste can happen at any time while operating your bakery business. 

Waste management is a common problem for any culinary business, so it is essential to optimize a strong waste management technology. In recent years, FiFO and LIFO methods have become very popular in the food business sector. 

FIFO stands for First In, First Out, while LIFO stands for Last In, First Out. FIFO is a method that uses the strategy of using or selling the goods that are produced or purchased first.  

On the other hand, LIFO is a method that uses the strategy of using or selling the goods first that are produced or purchased last. These methods are very easy to implement and understand. It will create a natural flow in your inventory management system, which leads to low food waste and reduced costs.

4. Storage Optimization

Optimizing bakery storage is important for managing bakery inventory, increasing production, and reducing food or other ingredient wastage. 

Good storage is the key to maintaining your food's quality. You have to keep your storage neat and clean to reduce health hazards, store foods and ingredients at the correct temperature, maintain humidity, etc.  

5. Scaling Up For The Next

The bakery business is very exciting. The area and improvement of a bakery business are very high. So, if you can maintain the quality and demand for your bakery products, your demand will increase very fast. 

As a result, you have to increase your business size and products. You must use an excellent inventory management system to cope with the increasing demand. It will help you keep up to date with business demand.

6. Train Your Staffs

A proper bakery inventory management system is very effective for making your bakery business efficient. So, to improve your bakery inventory, you must train your employees. For example, you can train your staff in inventory stacking, using different types of software, proper storage strategy, food waste reduction, employee management, etc. 

Top Bakery Inventory Management Software

Bakery inventory management software has extraordinary features that can help manage raw materials and ingredient items, forecast market demand, track sales, and many other activities. With the help of excellent management software, you can reach the top level of success in the bakery business. So, you have to choose the best software for your bakery inventory management. Here, we have listed the top bakery inventory management software. 

1. Restora POS

Restora POS is the most updated restaurant and bakery inventory management software. It has highly advanced features that can run your bakery business smoothly. They provide the best way to track inventory. Restora POS provides the ultimate services to manage every aspect of your bakery business sector. Restora POS is considered one of the best bakery inventory management tools.

2. CAKE POS

CAKE POS is a strong restaurant management software providing bakery inventory management services. It has strong features to connect the front and back of the house, which leads to maximizing your bakery production. 

3. Toast POS

Toast POS is a cloud-based restaurant management software company owned by an American company. It ensures excellent customer services by providing all bakery operations management. 

4. Aloha EPOS

Aloha EPOS is a very popular cloud-based POS software designed to improve restaurant, bakery, and bar management. It provides all services, including table services, seat reservations, staff roster and training, floor plans, etc. You can use this cloud-based software to manage your bakery inventory.   

5. Samba POS

SambaPOS is software that powers your bakery business and will help you achieve the next level of success. It helps you manage your inventory with real-time data and boost your bakery's performance.

Risk Management For Bakery Business

Every business is challenging, and the bakery business is no exception. As a restaurant owner, you have to constantly challenge yourself to deliver high-quality goods while maintaining profitability. You have to balance your customers' demand and bakery production. 

You will face different difficulties and risks in your bakery business. You have to manage those risks if you want to succeed. Here, we will discuss the risks you may face while running a bakery business and risk management ideas.

1. Business Obstruction

While you run your bakery business, you may face different business obstructions. For example, natural disasters, fire occurrences, politics, location failures, etc. These problems can have a huge negative effect on your bakery business, including damage to reputation or permanent closure. So you have to take control over those risk management.

2. Property Damage Or Loss

In a bakery business, you need different types of baking instruments and electrical equipment, such as commercial ovens, micro ovens, stoves, fryers, refrigerators, etc. However, property damage is very high due to fire, carelessness, or electrical malfunctions. So, to lessen the risks, you must buy high-quality ingredients, maintain fire safety rules, and train your staff properly on how to use that equipment.

3. Product  Accountability

Product accountability is one of the major risky concerns for the bakery business. If customers face health hazards like food poisoning or serious illness, the bakery owner has to face many lawsuits. So, a bakery owner must ensure food safety to avoid these issues. 

4. Food Spoilage

Food spoilage is a major concern for bakery business owners. As we know the bakery produces and stores a high amount of products so it contains high risk for food spoilage. Proper storage and management can reduce food spoilage in bakery business.

5. Worker’s Coverage

As we know, the bakery business involves baking or slicing. The staff can face many injuries, such as burning from fryers or ovens, wounds during slicing, or other accidents. In that case, the owner has to make a costly settlement to solve the problem. Effective employees can excellently reduce these types of risks.

Final Thought

Bakeries are the most dynamic businesses because of their uniqueness. With the help of a robust POS system, bakeries can streamline their daily operations. So, it is essential to implement a bakery inventory management system in your bakery to run this dynamic business. Not only implementation but also knowing how to manage bakery inventory properly is essential. This article has provided all the information on how to manage a bakery inventory. So get yourself knowledgeable and manage your bakery effectively.